Running
by CCRA
Summary: [OC' life snippets.] Central City. Celine Clifford. Running. Yeah.
1. Night times

Celine Clifford is a normal girl. Normal life. Normal grades. Normal school. Wake up, go to school, hang out with friends, go home, do homework, go to sleep. It's rather a simple one really. She likes to watch the superheroes of the world band together to defeat the enemies that run rampant in the world, cheering them from the sidelines.

She tries helps others in any way she can. By helping an orphanage, loving to see their faces lighting up and smile and even volunteering at an animal shelter, washing them and playing with them... Hey, she meant _others_ really loosely.

What's the difference with the rest of the average people?

She doesn't know. Running?

...

 _left. right. left. right._

Celine ran through a park near to her home, her short orange hair be ruffled by the winds that ran past, tugging at her loose hoodie that hid the tangled lines of her earphones as she listened to the soundtracks of her favorite music. There wasn't much people out here tonight, but of course there was a few stray people that still wandered through. She weaved through them pretty easily. It was night time at Central Park.

She had to move to this particular city because of her mother's job offer. The girl still didn't know what the job was.

She wasn't bothered to ask at this point.

Musing to herself, her body went into an autopilot mode of sorts. Moving in and out of people while maintaining a steady pace as her thoughts consumed her attention, thinking of the things she had to be ready for tomorrow. It was Sunday. Meaning that Monday was literally a few hours away and she internally groaned at the thought. She just moved here yesterday!

Skidding to a stop, she moved herself so that she was prepared to run all the way back home. Breathing in and out, Celine decided it was no harm in admiring the Central City nights. Spotting a good position, she sat down cross-legged on a bench that was covered by the trees, and looked up at the midnight sky. The song changed into something soothing to which she appreciated the song change.

"Central City, huh...?" Celine murmured, blinking her blue eyes.

After a few minutes, she stood up once more, ignoring the feeling of pins and needles after realizing that her legs had fallen asleep. Glancing at her phone she spotted that it was 9:03 PM. "This is why I love ya, Ma." She grinned slightly. Her parents were really loose when it came to curfews unlike other parents.

She looked to see the skyscrapers near the park. All nice and shiny and- _why the hell was it orange colored all of a sudden._

Eyes widened when she realized that an attack was happening.

...

Of course, she had to check it out.

Going against the flow of fleeing civilians was harder than it seemed, as many masses of bodies slid past you, some bumping into her and others just ramming into her with no warning. She bit her tongue to not insult the person that barraged past her because really, people with fire can definitely burn you with their temper.

Or they can burn themselves up.

Either way, flames hurt.

She slid to a stop once she spotted Heatwave, no more than a mere figure in the distance. Hey, just because she wants to watch how (erm, Flash and Flash Ki- Kid Flash, right?) the heroes of Central City handle it, doesn't mean that she wants to burnt. She peeked over the side, seeing blurs of red and yellow appear in front of Heatwave. It's them.

It was a fire show, seeing them run around, dodging the flames that lit up the night sky.

And the buildings.

Then she had to squint to see Flash make some sort of movement towards Kid Flash, who immediately zoomed out of sight. Celine tilted her head slightly. _What are they doing?_

The yellow blur appeared in front of the flaming skyscrapers, stopping in front of it with a certainly determined stance.

Celine couldn't help but whistle slightly.

It's a good thing that she was still far away from his sight and hearing.

Then Kid Flash ran up the walls - _she had no idea he could do that_ \- and entered the building.

Then the firefighters came into play.

"I swear that the help coming after the superhero saved the day is a giant cliche in itself."

...

Celine couldn't stay around for too long.

The firefighters blocked off the area and as a (somewhat) obedient citizen, she walked backwards until she reached the border of the blocked off area. Still, she looked up at the buildings with curiosity, wondering what Kid Flash is still doing in there-

Oh wait, there he is.

And Flash too, oh wow, that near clean-up was quick.

 _Definitely need to react faster than my feet._ She thought dryly, shifting her weight as she tried to get a good look for herself, trying her best to find the speedy hero. Celine tended to ignore the news on TV and only focus what was going on around her surroundings in real life. Yeah, it was a weird thing to do.

She was squeezed by tons of reporters who were fighting to get a better space to report the news, and she tried to push them off her before a hand on her shoulder guided her to a better position. Blinking with surprise, she looked up to see a redheaded woman with microphone who gave her a small smile or reassurance. Celine gave a unsure grin of her own. "Thanks."

"Welcome."

Then she spotted them.

No. It was not a love at first sight. No, it was not a crush. Bleh, she never had one. And she seen them during the rare glimpses of the news on TV.

Just a curious girl who is looking at a superhero for the first time. In real life.

Flash was definitely taller than what she seen. And Kid Flash looked more younger than what she seen. And they definitely looked open. As in, their body language looked carefree and had a stance that she seen with runners.

Friends back then said she nearly had a stance the same as them. She, of course, laughed it off.

Okay, she's a runner, and they're speedsters- she has to at least know them somewhat!

Kid Flash felt a curious stare being trained on him and of course, he twisted his head around to see... a teen who wore clothes like that Rocky montages except they had bright orange hair. And of course, being Kid Flash and all, he was to flirt at least once. He had never seen her before and he knew everyone. Walking up to her, instead of the reporters that was being handled by Flash currently, and he started off simply.

"Well, well, it looks like you couldn't take your eyes of me."

One blink. Two blinks.

"Sorry, I was looking for my friend. Your face was blocking me."

Silence. It was... really awkward.

Celine couldn't believe she said that. She couldn't believe she said that. Still couldn't believe it. To a freaking superhero nonetheless. She even lied!

Despite the fact that she didn't go red and had a poker face on, she nearly died of embarrassment. But if any pick-up lines were directed onto her, she'll just respond with sarcastic comments.

Then Kid Flash laughed

"Jeez... You really are master at sarcasm aren't ya...?" He snorted lightly. Robin took that crown already.

"'Course. Any pick-up lines don't work on me." She shrugged slightly.

Kid Flash perked his head up to see Flash calling for him. He looked back at the girl. "Well, I gotta run. See ya later, strawberry." He disappeared, two blurs racing across the city.

Celine bit back a shout. _Why would you call me 'strawberry' of all things?!_

Soon enough the crowd dispersed leaving Celine behind with that redheaded lady. It was a couple of seconds until

"Surprised you said that." She blinked to see the woman with a sly smile smile on her face. "Nice job, kid. I'm Iris."

"Celine." She bit her lip. "I need to go as well. My parents are gonna kill me for being late."

A chuckle escaped Iris' lips after Celine's comment. "I know the feeling. Go on." She smiled. "You don't want them to ground you, do they?"

"No ma'am!" And with that Celine ran off, the songs that were still beating in her earphones slightly surprised her with the fact that she forgot to turn them off. And probably drained some of the little battery she had left. She sighed quietly after reaching her home in the city, all hot but the cool air offered her comfort for that.

She greeted her parents, had an idle chat, telling them about that fighting and all. The parents scolded her for being so close to a fight that wasn't for her but she shrugged a little at their responses. After telling them goodnight, she changed into simple pajamas because she'd done for the day and sat on her bed, looking out of the window beside her bed.

Her thoughts were clouded with the Flash. Then Kid Flash. Then Batman. Robin. All the superheroes flitted in and out of her mind now that Kid Flash interacted with her- her interest in superheroes grew rapidly. She realized how much they affect most of the lives in world. After the silent rant about them ended in her head, her suddenly tired eyes flicked towards the clock on the wall.

10:04 PM.

Even if her parents hadn't put a curfew on, she'll normally sleep at 10:00.

Celine sighed softly, preparing herself for tomorrow. And sleep. "Central City, here I come."


	2. First day, hurray

**AN: Hello! I know I should've done this in the first chapter but I'm too lazy. This story is not going to be an OC-turned Superhero, I just wanted to explore superhero/civilian relationship with my OC. No, I'm not gonna ship my OC with someone. And KF is in the same school where she's going, so yeah. :P enjoy.**

Yay.

It's the first day of school.

Yeah, she's not getting up.

But the large BANG from the door definitely made her jump, startled by the noise and forced her senses to become wide awake.

Celine sighed, forcing herself to get up. She slightly cursed her father's ways of immediately getting her body to wake. She rolled out of bed and onto the floor to where she rested before getting up and slumped her way towards the bathroom. She looked up to see that her hair's a mess, her eyes were droopy and overall, she just looks dead.

She bit her lip, before picking up her toothbrush with a tired sigh.

"Time to get ready then."

...

Dressing simply and comfortably, she wore a white shirt underneath a blue hoodie, wearing skinny grey track pants with running shoes on. Running and Pokemon made the shoes a part of her attire. She was still too obsessed with catching them all.

Shouldering her red and black bag, she memorized her way to school as soon as her father told her where it was located, it was a somewhat long way but running still helps to lessen the time if there was traffic. And the bus was a second option then asking her parents for a ride was the last resort.

Waving goodbye to them and kissing them on the check, she began to run towards her school. The orange hair she had whipped out behind her as she did so, the bag constantly hitting her back as she took one step forward at a time. _That is really annoying_ , she thought irritably.

Spotting her school from the image also given to her by her father, she skidded to a stop, looking at the school that she was attending. There was crowds of people at the entrance telling her that she was _not_ late for her first day, much to her relief, and she used the time to cast a sweep of what kinds of people that were present in the school.

Athletes, by the looks of them stretching and turning whilst having that muscular look. And the Cheerleader group was present as seen by them drooling all over the place with their style of clothes, gawking at the sight of the athletes. Some of them were just having an idle chat so it gave her hope that not all of them were like the cliches.

Geeks/Nerds as by their huddled appearances, and she caught snippets of their conversation, talking about games and homework. Yep. Definitely nerds, even if most of them didn't have the stereotypical glasses on. She tilted her head slightly at the group of outsiders standing further away from everyone else, looking like they didn't belong yet found their own little place with their friends.

Little goth groups here and there.

And then there was people chatting with one or two people. The ones that have no set groups. The ones that are not outsiders but not in a group.

Probably where she was gonna end up with her slightly eccentric personality. She wondered if she was going to even gain friends.

Then someone crashed into her. From the back.

"AH!" Blue eyes looked up to see someone's form on top of her, groaning all the while. Rolling her eyes with annoyance, she pushed herself up and made him roll off her, standing up and dusting herself off. Seeing that she broke nothing, she looked down at the person that fell on her.

Male. Red hair. Green eyes.

Tons of freckles.

Celine blinked.

"Erm... howdy?" She greeted him with an unsure tone, a hand outstretched to help him up. He grabbed it with a sheepish smile, hoisting himself up and dusted himself. A hand moved towards the back of his neck, a nervous tic of his.

"Haha... Sorry about that. I thought I was late."

Celine grinned. "Relatable." Then she realized that she probably had no idea where to go next, as this was her first day here - having no idea on how the school looked like inside. "Hey, em... Can you show me where the Principal's Office is? I'm new around here." She resisted on having a nervous voice as she didn't want to ruin her first interactions with the students here, instead taking on a slightly more playful tone.

The redhead tilted his head for a bit and shrugged his shoulders soon afterwards. His friends should be able to handle themselves without him for a while. "Sure. Name's Wally West. And who are you m'lady?" He recognized her from yesterday, the one that deflected his flirtatious comment that sent Robin cackling when they met up later. He's definitely curious about her. And he was suddenly glad he didn't call her 'strawberry' like before. That would be a dead giveaway to his secret life.

 _Looks like another flirt. But he doesn't seem too bad..._ "Celine Clifford. Heh, would you look at that... Double letters. Mind if I call ya 'W' or 'Walls' or something?"

Wally blinked, and looked down at Celine with curiosity and a certain amount of amusement. "Whatever floats your boat. Say, wanna hang out afterwards? You can meet some of my other friends." A grin followed suit as he shifted his weight around.

The girl just looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Duh. I don't have anywhere else to go, dude." She rolled her shoulders. "And I need friends like you to show me the ropes."

"Oh, I'll show you the ropes alright..." A slight purr escaped his lips.

"What?"

"Oh nothing..." Wally had to hide the incoming chuckle from Celine's stare.

...

"Tada~!" Wally sang, doing the jazz hands movement as he leaned in slightly towards the Principal's Office, a wide smile on his face as he did so. "Here we are!"

Celine stifled her giggles, briefly wondering as to why she even decided to hang out with him in the first place before she went up to the wooden door that seemed repainted and brand new, knocking on the door quite loudly before waiting for a response that told her to go inside. Waiting for a few minutes, she turned towards Wally with a questionable look on her face but he could only shrug.

Raising a hand, she was about to go ahead and knock on more time but a voice filled with authority filled her ears. "Come in."

Looking back towards Wally, he moved his head, jerking it towards the door, suggesting that she would open it. "After you, M'lady." He grinned but Celine didn't give him a glance, already opening the door and slipping inside with a neutral face on. He pouted slightly at the little reaction that she gave.

"Definitely a 'hard-to-get' type." He huffed.

...

"Thank you, sir. Goodbye." Celine closed the door behind her and faced Wally who had a look that said 'what happened?'. She just smirked and bumped Wally's arm with her elbow. "Apparently... I have to go to most classes like you, West. Your my tour guide for the day."

"Oh wow, really?" Celine nodded. "Did he see me?"

"I did leave the door open a bit so... I guess?"

Wally rolled his eyes and sighed. "'Course he did."

"What? Do you hate him or something?"

"More like he hates _me._ "

"Aw, what's someone like you do to him? Did ya flirt with the girls and they complained?"

"Nah, they would've fallen for my charms if I did that."

" _Right. Of course_ they would."

"Anyways, I-"

 _B'RIING._

"...I need to bring you to our Homeroom."

...

"And class, this is our new student. Why don't you introduce yourself, miss?" Miss Jackson stepped aside to reveal Celine to the rest of the class, seeing her tomboy-ishness in all her glory. It caused some curious, uninterested and disgusted faces among the class. Mostly curious, because the girl literally came out of nowhere and of course the curiosity will kill the cat.

Wally was bored, tapping his leg against the tiles underneath him. He wasn't bored of Celine, oh no, he would never do that to such a lady. But it was more of, 'oh yeah, I met the new kid before all of you so I already know everything about her.'

Because Celine Clifford was an open book.

Like him.

Yeah.

"Heh... Howdy! Name's Celine Clifford." She started off with, a friendly yet nervous grin on her face while using her hands to gesture things about herself. "I like to-"

"Yeah, yeah, that's great." A rude voice interrupted her thoughts, and immediately Celine looked towards the crowd, hoping to spot them before her frustration took over. "You're boring like West, so just sit down already."

It appeared to be one of the outsiders. They didn't look like bullies; it just seemed that they didn't care about all of this - seeing their position that was leaning against the table with a bored manner, a hand hold their head up.

"...Ooo-kay? Thanks for the input, buddy." Celine rolled her eyes a little. "Didn't know that you didn't care."

Miss Jackson stared at the student with a harsh look in her eye. The student rolled their eyes, as if used to this. The older one opened her mouth, probably to reprimand them but the bell interrupted her.

As the shuffles of students and the grinds of chairs echoed the room Celine could only mutter, "Does the bell have to be that rude?"

...

"And here's the place of my purr-sonal favorite," Wally started, causing Celine to roll her eyes since Wally started to use puns after one science joke. One! "The Claws-eteria. Home of the hungry."

And it was mostly true, seeing as most were actually eating instead of chattering but still, there was a lot of noise. And Celine winced at the volume but soon got used to it once they lined up for the food, Wally first then Celine. _So much for his 'ladies first' rule,_ she mused. As she looked over him, Wally looked like a mixture of giddiness and nervousness, seeing his weight being shifted from on foot to another. She raised an eyebrow at that display but kept quiet.

Soon enough, they got their turn.

The Lunchlady, Marissa, raised an eyebrow at Wally, who had a nervous grin on his face, her face being the definition of unimpressed. "Are you going to throw up your forths in the bathroom?" She drawled out, mocking him leaving Wally's nervous smile to falter.

"No, ma'am." Wally seemed to bite back a comment that will probably get him into even more trouble.

"Good." Then she proceeded to dump everything into Wally's tray, then proceeded onto the next tray which was her's.

Celine hefted the tray up which was filled to the brim of stuff that... she had no idea about but she followed Wally who motioned for her to follow. Weaving through the crowd with slight difficulty, she finally caught up to the redhead who was already sitting down with a bunch of his friends, and having a good time.

Suddenly, she felt awkward. This was a group of people that was Wally's friends and she felt like she was barging into someone's social life, but with Wally's beckon she slipped into a seat to Wally's right, ignoring her emotions for now.

"Oh, oh? Who's this, Wally?" A black-haired teen asked Wally, sitting across from him, her dark eyes gazing at Celine and she suddenly felt like she was being scrutinized by a detective, and felt like she could hide nothing from the black-haired girl.

Wally smiled at the person. "This is my new classmate. Linda, this is Celine. Celine, Linda."

"Howdy." She greeted, unconsciously using basic sign language. Her uncle was deaf and her mom did most of the work, so yeah.

Linda gave one last look-over before a smile came onto her lips. "Heya. If you're friends with this doofus than you need to mostly ignore everything what he says. Half of it is nonsense."

"Yeah... Can see why. He talked about food for half an hour when it was English."

"Tuh. Typical."

"Hey! I'm right here!" Wally whined, but both girls were already talking about his antics. He pouted slightly. Then a nudge from his left made him look over to see a smirking Hartley.

"Surrounded yourself with girls huh?" Wally stuck his tongue out at him, who just shrugged at his shoulders at his response. James sat across Hartley, who waved frantically at Wally. Hartley chuckled at the sight.

"James, stop. Your arm is gonna be numb afterwards." The redhead tried to put the other boy's arm down but James just went back to waving and shook his head.

"I made a bet with Hartley and I'm not gonna lose this time!"

Wally rolled his eyes this time. "Of course you did."

...

"Well, how's the first day?" Wally asked after the bell rang, causing many teenagers to scramble out of the place of horror that they call school. He forced himself to hang behind in front of the entrance of school, for the sake of Celine and not revealing his abilities. Hartley, James and Linda had seperate classes and didn't go the same way as them. The girl looked up at Wally with a look before a smirk overcame.

"Hope you get used to me, Walls. I'm staying here." She said simply, managing to overcome the roar of the crowd, bouncing down the steps and was getting ready to run home. As always.

"I'm sad then. You and your constant chat-ter is going to annoy me." He followed after her and stood in the place where Wally crashed into her.

"I thought you loved me-... Did you just put a cat joke in there?"

"You know the language of love, then?"

"... I'm not speaking to you tomorrow, W."

"Aw- hey, wait!" Wally watched as Celine run away from him, and before she went around the corner and out of his sight, she sent a smile and a wave, signalling that she was just joking.

He shook his head, before going to Aunt Iris' home.

"Welcome to Central City, strawberry."


End file.
